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Kirby Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides marine transportation and diesel engine services primarily in the United States. Its Marine Transportation segment provides transportation services for the inland and coastal markets. KEX has a PE ratio of 25.5. Currently there are 6 analysts that rate Kirby a buy, no analysts rate it a sell, and 2 rate it a hold.

The average volume for Kirby has been 317,900 shares per day over the past 30 days. Kirby has a market cap of $6.9 billion and is part of the services sector and transportation industry. The stock has a beta of 1.17 and a short float of 2.3% with 5.37 days to cover. Shares are up 22% year-to-date as of the close of trading on Thursday.

TheStreet Quant Ratings rates Kirby as a
buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, impressive record of earnings per share growth, compelling growth in net income, expanding profit margins and solid stock price performance. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows weak operating cash flow.

Highlights from the ratings report include:

KEX's revenue growth has slightly outpaced the industry average of 9.5%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 11.4%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share.

KIRBY CORP has improved earnings per share by 18.0% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, KIRBY CORP increased its bottom line by earning $4.45 versus $3.74 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($5.10 versus $4.45).

The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has exceeded that of the S&P 500 and greatly outperformed compared to the Marine industry average. The net income increased by 18.9% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, going from $63.09 million to $74.99 million.

35.02% is the gross profit margin for KIRBY CORP which we consider to be strong. It has increased from the same quarter the previous year. Along with this, the net profit margin of 11.94% is above that of the industry average.

Investors have apparently begun to recognize positive factors similar to those we have mentioned in this report, including earnings growth. This has helped drive up the company's shares by a sharp 45.26% over the past year, a rise that has exceeded that of the S&P 500 Index. We feel that the stock's sharp appreciation over the last year has driven it to a price level which is now somewhat expensive compared to the rest of its industry. The other strengths this company shows, however, justify the higher price levels.